


in vino veritas (drunkards tell all)

by leifstroganoff



Category: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (TV)
Genre: Drinking & Talking, First Kiss, In Vino Veritas, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:34:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25996093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leifstroganoff/pseuds/leifstroganoff
Summary: Max is sure that if anybody had told him a year ago that he’d be having drinks with Leif ‘Smarmy’ Donnelly in his own apartment, he would probably try to have them committed. They weren’t friends. They were barely acquaintances. Leif feels about the same.
Relationships: Leif Donnelly/Max Richman
Comments: 5
Kudos: 18





	in vino veritas (drunkards tell all)

**Author's Note:**

> this is part of a [request meme](https://coderbfs.tumblr.com/post/625534637444399104/fanfiction-trope-mash-up) from tumblr! it was max/leif + in vino veritas/first kiss so that's what you get (i am also still accepting requests from that meme! i'm not writing them in any particular order, just whatever i get inspiration for first so who knows maybe you'll see it soon idk)
> 
> every single thing/pairing i write gets nicher and nicher

Max is sure that if anybody had told him a year ago that he’d be having drinks with Leif ‘Smarmy’ Donnelly in his own apartment, he would probably try to have them committed. They weren’t friends. They were  _ barely  _ acquaintances. But something about their time together on the sixth floor, bonding over failed “relationships”, plus the roller coaster of emotions that was getting him fired and then being very weirdly apologetic  _ about _ getting him fired was sure to bond them in a way that they both found very hard to describe. 

Leif feels about the same. 

And yet,  _ here they are.  _ Three glasses of wine deep with no signs of stopping. They’ve been hanging out more over the past couple of weeks; watching (read: making fun of) bad movies, getting very drunk, and finding more and more things that they actually have in common. 

“God, no, please. Don’t even bring that up.”

“Hey, I had to sit through it, I think I have the right to make fun of you just a little bit. I mean…  _ Joan?” _

“I’m not…” He adjusts, head resting lazily against his hand, propped up on the back of the couch. “I have had much prouder moments,  _ I know.  _ But, in my defense, I was, like, 75% sure she was the love of my life, so, y’know, risk and reward.” 

Max is mid-sip when he sputters and has to force himself to swallow the wine in his mouth. 

“Risk and - Okay, I was about to make fun of you, but that’s kinda funny, actually.” Leif laughs a little bit as he sips more wine. “Sucks there was roughly no reward for that much risk, though.” 

“Oh, you have absolutely no right to tease. I heard about the flash mob,” The words are accompanied by a playful shove, but his hand doesn’t retreat from where it pushed on his arm. “Mr. ‘I’m Gonna Sing My Feelings To Zoey “Emotional Intelligence” Clarke’.”

“Alright, fair. That’s fair.” 

“No, that’s _mean._ I’m just being a dick.” He shakes his head and moves his hand from his shoulder to press a palm against his eye. (And why was his hand still on his shoulder? He definitely should’ve moved his hand from his shoulder before that.) “You were trying to make a big moment. You loved her. Or… you thought you loved her, I don’t know.” 

“We thought a lot of things, huh?” 

“Mhm, love is but a fickle beast.”

“Hm.”

“What?” Leif can feel Max’s eyes boring into him curiously, even if he’s taking another sip as an excuse to not meet his eye.

“I’m just… I’m pretty sure you just quoted Shakespeare at me, and I really wanna tease you about it, but it’s gonna be very embarrassing for me if I’m wrong.”

“Uh, I’m  _ pretty sure _ that’s from Sons of Anarchy.” 

“See, it’s embarrassing for me now that I’m wrong!” 

He can’t tell if it’s the wine or the conversation that’s flushing his cheeks, but he can feel the warmth and he ducks his head down, hoping Leif won’t notice it (even if he does, Leif certainly doesn’t wanna question its meaning). 

The silence hangs over them for a second as they each sip from their wine, until it’s broken by both of them turning into the space between them at the same time.

“I--”

“You--”

“You can --”

“You go fir --”

They both go silent for a second, fully aware of the cliche they’ve found themselves in, before they both break into a small laugh.

“Mhm, this is just my luck, huh?”

“Just your luck?”

Leif’s eyebrows are knitted together and he thinks he would be having a better time grasping what the other guy means if he had just a little less wine in his system.

“To find myself falling for someone my best friend detests. Hell, that  _ I  _ detested for a while. That’s gonna be a fun conversation.”

“Max, what’re you talking about?” 

“Right, right,” Max’s eyes have drifted from Leif’s, no longer kind and lighthearted, but just a little bit dejected. “These are the things that stay up here when I’m sober.” His finger jabs into his temple, shaking his head as he takes a rather large sip from his wine glass.

Leif tries to process it, he thinks he knows what he’s saying, at least, but there’s a part of him that really wants to pretend he doesn’t, so he doesn’t have to acknowledge the fact that his eyes have caught on Max’s lips at least five times since the teasing conversation had started.

No, that couldn’t be what he means, anyways. Because Max is straight and even if he wasn’t,  _ Leif  _ would not be one to catch his attention, he’s sure of it.

So, why won’t he make eye contact with him?

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. This is weird now. I’m not imagining that, right? This is weird?”

“Uh…” A heavy swallow and several seconds of toying with the bottom of his wine glass. “It’s not…  _ not _ weird. You said --”

“I know - uh, I know what I said.” 

“So, you meant to say…” 

A moment of silence, both eyes meeting the wine glasses in their hands as if they’re a replacement for confronting the other’s gaze. 

“I meant to say that, uh,” Max considers lying. He really does. It would be so easy to say ‘I didn’t mean to say anything’, ‘I meant to say someone’d be lucky to have you’, ‘I meant to say I know we’ve already talked about this, but we’re cool about the firing thing’, bring the mood back to a light-hearted one, say literally anything but the truth, because the truth is that he’d said exactly what he meant. “I meant… what I said?”

“And what you said was that you…” Leif leans forward to set his wine glass down on the table before using both hands to rub at his forehead. “Well, you implied that you were…” 

Neither of them say anything for a moment, letting what they both know is true hang over them like a sword held up only by a thin fraying length of rope. 

“I’m sorry.” 

“I’m just, uh…” His hands drop and his elbows rest on his knees, tentative expression staring towards Max’s regretful one. “I’m a little confused, but I think it’s -”

“You think it’s weird, I really shouldn’t have said anything, dude. It’s fine, I -” 

One second Max is talking and the next Leif has lunged forward to shut him up, lips against rougher lips, hand resting on the couch next to Max’s thigh to hold himself up. It’s short enough that Max doesn’t actually have time to react before Leif pulls away, inhaling sharply before finishing where Max had cut him off seconds prior. 

“I was gonna say ‘I think it’s mutual’. Just… for the record.” 

“Oh.”

“So… _ yeah.” _

The awkwardness fills the air, both pairs of eyes boring into the coffee table hard enough to make holes until Max turns his head to take in Leif’s straight posture, hands clasped in front of his knees, tension pulling in his shoulders.

“Do you wanna do that again?”

And the tension drains.

“God,  _ yeah.” _

**Author's Note:**

> comments always make me ridiculously happy


End file.
